The 2026 budget is taking shape more and more precisely, even if margins of uncertainty remain before its final version: the devil hides in the details, and it would not be the first time that in the final text some “little hand” (never made public, unfortunately) inserts a modification that removes what seemed consolidated, and shifts resources in favor of some other interlocutor, for “better positioned” recipients. In particular the measures specifically in favor of the family have so far been presented in their overall list, which is certainly not marginal, but the total financing still remains uncertain. Thus, the mothers bonus of 480 euros per year it should absorb 500 million, but will they really be there in the final version? Will it be more or less? Let’s start from this measure, which broadens the number of recipients of the maternity allowance (more substantial, but with lower ISEE limits), because it is certainly a measure in direct support of the birth rate, but it still remains limited in time (only for the first year of the child’s life: and then?), and not financed in a structural way: this year it was there, in 2026 it will be there, and in 2027? Furthermore, it selects a limited target of mothers: employed workers, under 40,000 Euro ISEE, certainly a high limit, but still discriminating.
AND It is precisely on the ISEE that the most interesting signals appear to emerge: the exclusion of the first home/residence from the ISEE calculations seems certain, and perhaps some changes to the equivalence coefficients/scales, which so far have been too stingy in weighing the cost of children (thus harming families with multiple children). So – finally! – those families who perhaps have saved to the bone to acquire a home of their own to live in would be penalized less, and who today often found themselves at the bottom of the ISEE rankings in accessing various services or in a higher range of tariffs, for the sole fact of being owners of the house in which they lived. It would be really good news, the start of the ISEE reform!
The ventilated one is also interesting contribution at birth for the supplementary pension (300 Euros for each birth, which can then be integrated thanks to the joint contribution of the state and parents); finally a measure that is concerned with a future that is not immediate, but no less important, that is to say the social security protection of the new generations, thanks to a system (the supplementary social security) that should be further strengthened, not to compete with/weaken the universalistic system headed by the INPS, but to integrate it, making it increasingly sustainable and not condemning many of tomorrow’s elderly people to minimum pensions – certainly lower than the current ones. Finally a policy of real intergenerational solidarity and a vast temporal scope – or at least a first sign in this sense.
A further strengthening of the optional parental leave (three months at 80% of the salary), another crucial point of support for parents, especially if we know how to increase its use by fathers.
Finally, we talk about 3 and a half billion in three years (!) to support families and fight poverty, to integrate other measures (in addition, therefore, to the significant commitment on the single allowance). They are not few, but they are not many either, spread over three years, and especially if it is not clear which measures to combat poverty should be included in this budget. For example the refinancing of “Dedicated to you” card, 500 Euros one-off to families with very low ISEE who do not receive other support, which had over one million recipients (and an overall budget of 500 million euros). This measure is also limited, one-off – but precious, for many families who “don’t make it to the end of the month”.
Obviously other measures, with much more substantial resources, also generate indirect benefits for families (the drop in Irpef for average incomes, the various home bonuses and renovations, actions in favor of employment), but in our country there remains a strong need for policies aimed at the family in its phases of life, which often pose problems that are “also”, but not only economic: so families who have children in school are certainly concerned first of all about the educational quality that their children will live with, but they also have explicit non-trivial costs (materials, textbooks, etc.), and The Forum of family associations did well to draw attention to this issue, asking for substantial deductions on school costs.
In short, a maneuver that affects the family in different ways is good, because there are many critical points in family life, and it is not enough to support the single allowance, which also remains the only generally universalistic and consistent instrument in the field today: but the final evaluation cannot fail to be measured by the quantity of resources that will actually be invested in a targeted way on the family.
*Director of CISF (International Center for Family Studies)
in the Ansa photo, the Minister of Economy Giancarlo Giorgetti.
